Stilbenes are small molecular weight (∼200-300 g/mol), naturally occurring compounds and are found in a wide range of plant sources, aromatherapy products, and dietary supplements. These molecules are synthesized via the phenylpropanoid pathway and share some structural similarities to estrogen. Upon environmental threat, the plant host activates the phenylpropanoid pathway and stilbene structures are produced and subsequently secreted. Stilbenes act as natural protective agents to defend the plant against viral and microbial attack, excessive ultraviolet exposure, and disease. One stilbene, resveratrol, has been extensively studied and has been shown to possess potent anti-cancer, antiinflammatory and anti-oxidant activities. Found primarily in the skins of grapes, resveratrol is synthesized by Vitis vinifera grapevines in response to fungal infection or other environmental stressors. Considerable research showing resveratrol to be an attractive candidate in combating a wide variety of cancers and diseases has fueled interest in determining the disease-fighting capabilities of other structurally similar stilbene compounds. The purpose of this review is to describe four such structurally similar stilbene compounds, piceatannol, pinosylvin, rhapontigenin, and pterostilbene and detail some current pharmaceutical research and highlight their potential clinical applications.

Flip-flop pharmacokinetics is a phenomenon often encountered with extravascularly administered drugs. Occurrence of flip-flop spans preclinical to human studies. The purpose of this article is to a...

Resveratrol is a phytochemical that has been under consideration for use as a prostate cancer chemopreventive agent. However, the efficacy, as well as the mechanisms of action of resveratrol on prostate cancer prevention, remains largely unknown. This study seeks to address these questions and examine the cancer preventive effects of resveratrol using complementary human LNCaP prostate cancer cell culture and xenograft models. In cultured LNCaP cells, we found that resveratrol inhibited cell growth. The growth inhibitory effects of resveratrol appeared to be through modulation of both androgen- and estrogen-mediated events. Global gene expression analysis using microarrays identified androgen-responsive genes as a group of genes universally affected by resveratrol in LNCaP cells in vitro. The effect of resveratrol on expression of these genes appeared to be through inhibition of both androgen- and estrogen-mediated transcription. In a xenograft model, resveratrol delayed LNCaP tumor growth and inhibited expression of a marker for steroid hormone responses. However, exposure to resveratrol also led to increased angiogenesis and inhibition of apoptosis in the xenograft. In summary, resveratrol may act through modulation of steroid hormone-dependent pathways to inhibit prostate cancer cell growth in both culture and xenografts, but exposure in vivo may be of concern.